LEFT FOR DEAD IN THE WORST PLACE IN AMERICA...

Our Editor’s Choice for 2010 also tops our list of the 50 Best iPhone Games of 2010: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. This top-down, open-world crime game is epic and detailed, scaling between grandiose and gritty.

If last year’s selection, Real Racing, showed that iPhone gaming can compete with the DS and PSP, this year’s choice shows that the iPhone can beat those platforms. GTA:CW on the iPhone has both the PSP’s sharp graphics and the DS’s touchscreen controls (critical for breaking windshields, hot-wiring cars, and filling Molotov cocktails at the gas station). It’s the definitive version of an outstanding game. Plus, it’s cheaper, and plays on your phone.

There’s another area we’re excited about, too: Modern PC ports like Plants vs. Zombies, Puzzle Quest 2, and World of Goo (on the iPad) are all perfectly executed on Apple’s devices. Not only is the iPhone playing gaming’s greatest hits, but it’s on the cutting edge as well. Not to mention all the incredible original development work that’s going on.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is the king of the ports, and that should make Sony and Nintendo nervous. With new handhelds appearing next year, we’ll see if the iPhone continues to stay out in front of the competition. Based on this year’s performance, we’re expecting great things.

Sometimes, we have a hard task picking the very best iPhone game from the hundreds we play every month. This month, however, it was no contest. Rockstar’s epic crime drama GTA: Chinatown Wars won hands-down.

GTA: Chinatown Wars is mainly a driving and shooting game, but it’s also a drug-running game, a taxi game, a police game, a tattoo parlor sim, and many, many other things. The astonishing breadth of minigames and side quests, like making molotov cocktails at the gas station or hijacking trucks loaded with guns and ammo, mean you will almost never run out of things to do.

The main storyline is equally absorbing. Three competing Chinese criminals are trying to outdo each other to become leader of the Triads, and you are tasked with helping all of them so that you can recover a stolen family sword. While the story missions are nicely varied, you can ditch them at any time to drive around the giant virtual city, scoping out drug dealers or taking random missions from strangers.

Our runner-up for GOTM is not quite as expansive, but it makes excellent use of the iDevice to deliver a unique, highly addictive RPG and card game experience. Sword and Poker is a combat-based card game where you lay down poker hands to inflict damage on your monster opponents. As you delve deeper into the game’s lengthy dungeon, you’ll find new magic spells and equipment, introducing scores of strategies.

Congratulations to Rockstar and GAIA for producing two incredible games this month.

Chinatown Wars represents one of the first large-scale ports to make it to the iPhone from another console. Furthermore, it was subjected to extra scrutiny due to Rockstar’s decision to introduce the game at a $9.99 price point, one third of the price of the same game on the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.

However, if this long-awaited port has sold so well that it knocked off even the very popular CoD: WaW: Zombies, then it looks like Rockstar may have navigated the iPhone’s waters very successfully.

Chinatown Wars could be something of a litmus test for iPhone owners, to see if there are ready for full-scale hardcore games. It will be interesting to see in the next couple of months if GTA continues to sell through the roof. If it does, we may see an all-new development boom, with lots of traditionally console-specific developers joining the fray.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars has proven to be among the very best titles on all three handheld platforms: DS, PSP, and now the iPhone. Even though we’ve played it in previous forms, Chinatown Wars still has the same ‘wow’ factor it did the first time we played it. In fact, it’s been enhanced due to extras only possible on the iPhone. Despite being a port, we can say that it’s one of the very best games available on the App Store, and sets the bar extremely high for other major developers.

If you’re new to GTA: CW, here’s the lowdown. You play as Huang Lee, the son of a recently assassinated Triad gangster, who is flown out to the infamously dangerous Liberty City to deliver Yu Jian, the family heirloom sword, to your uncle, Wu ‘Kenny’ Lee. However, upon arrival, two men ambush you and drive you into the water, leaving you to die while they steal the sword.

After escaping this near-death experience, you find yourself face to face with Wu. As one of three contestants in line to become the next Triad leader after Hsin Joaming (the current leader) steps down, Wu was going to offer the sword to Hsin to gain his favor. Now Hsin is angered and Wu has lost any chance at gaining the title he strives for. We won’t spoil the exciting and surprising story any further, but expect for the situation to quickly spin out of control.

Another sunny day in Liberty City.

Playing through the entire storyline will likely take about fifteen hours. Most of the gameplay involves stealing cars, driving through Liberty City, evading police, and warring with rival gangs, but a wide variety of missions keeps things fresh the entire time. These range from helping a Triad boss win a street race by rigging the other cars, to blowing up stores with molotovs (or preventing them from burning down). No two missions are alike, making it a joyride the entire way through.

Completing the campaign doesn’t mean you’ll run out of things to do in the game. Side missions, extra jobs, and unlockables are at your disposal, and completing them all will take days. Some of the jobs available include working as a policeman, taxi driver, ambulance driver, drug smuggler, and tattoo artist, but the list goes on. At any time you can take a break from the campaign to go out on a drug deal or roam around for fun.

This iPhone iteration of GTA:CW combines the touch-based functionality of the original DS game and high-quality graphics from the PSP port to make the best version of the game yet. The minigames for carjacking, scratch cards, molotov making, and tattooing feel at home on the touchscreen. We were skeptical about how the d-pad controls would work at first, but fear not: they work just as well as any physical controller. Rockstar even provides the ability to customize the controls to suit what you feel comfortable with.

We must have gotten our wires crossed.

Our greatest fear prior to GTA:CW’s release was that the profanity, drug dealing, and violence would be dramatically cut from the game, hindering the experience. Luckily, it remains untouched. Fans of the franchise will still find everything they have come to love: witty writing, incessant cursing, and a cast of morally screwed-up characters. The 17+ rating is there for a reason, and shouldn’t be overlooked if you are thinking about buying this for a younger child.

Since the DS version, Rockstar has revamped the five available radio stations with tons of new music. However, in the iPhone version you are no longer limited to what they have preloaded into the game. By creating an iTunes playlist named GTA and syncing it to your device, you can play your own music through the new ‘Independence’ station. It isn’t the first time we’ve seen this kind of iPod integration, but it makes a huge impact on the game’s fun factor.

If you haven’t bought GTA:CW yet, you should. It’s one of the most complete iPhone games to date, and its mature storyline is not to be missed. Even if you’ve played Chinatown Wars on another handheld device, buy it again: it’s Liberty City in your pocket.

Is it too late for April Fool’s? After a Touch Arcade forum poster using the name “Gameloft” pretended to announce a GTA: Chinatown Wars port, we’re a bit skeptical when it comes to “Chinatown Wars coming to the iPhone” announcements. But it seems now that Kotaku has confirmed the real deal from Rockstar’s President, Sam Houser.

Kotaku reports that Sam Houser told them in an interview, “Chinatown Wars is a perfect match for the iPhone and iPod touch. We are very excited to bring this incredibly ambitious version of Liberty City, with this level of detail and immersive gameplay on Apple’s new gaming platforms.”

Well, there you have it. Yet another best-selling franchise finds its home on the iPhone. While we’re looking forward to playing Chinatown Wars on the iPhone ourselves, we have to wonder: will Apple force Rockstar to tone down the naughty content?

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